Zeke Smith Says Survivor Gave Him “Unprecedented Autonomy” in How His Outing Was Handled

Survivor: Game Changers’ Zeke Smith stopped by The Talk to share his side of the outing story. On the Wednesday, April 12 episode of the CBS reality series, fellow contestants Jeff Varner revealed to everybody present at the Tribal Council (and at home) that Zeke is transgender.

“It didn’t quite hit until I looked at [Survivor host] Jeff Probst and Jeff Probst looked away from the tribe and he never takes the tribe out of his eyesight,” Zeke explained to The Talk hosts. “And that’s what signaled to me the worst had happened… there was this primal instinct in me that just said ‘run,’ but I knew I couldn’t run because I came to Survivor to confront great challenges.”